Written Answers Thursday 10 February 2011

Scottish Executive

Access for Disabled People

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-31997 by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 February 2010, what the (a) maximum, (b) average and (c) median waiting time is for assessment of people referred to the Scottish Driving Assessment Centre.

Nicola Sturgeon: The waiting times for people referred to the Scottish Driving Assessment Service are as follows:

  

(a) Maximum waiting time
56 weeks


(b) Average waiting time
26.4 weeks


(c) Median waiting time
27 weeks



  The above figures are based on waiting time from date of referral to first appointment offered between 1 February 2010 and 31 January 2011.

Access for Disabled People

Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to reduce waiting times for the Scottish Driving Assessment Service.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31998 on 10 March 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Ambulance Service

Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what additional measures were put in place to minimise the impact of the recent severe weather on ambulance crews’ response times.

Nicola Sturgeon: Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) operations were, inevitably, severely impacted by the prolonged adverse weather. Ambulance crews across the country worked tirelessly to respond to incidents. Crews were supported by partners including the Army, Coastguard and volunteers across the country, for example ambulance staff were driven to patients by army drivers in military 4x4 vehicles and treated at home or transferred to appropriate care. This additional support was implemented due to the physical challenges in reaching patients, not due to lack of SAS resource, and this collaborative effort meant that patients continued to be supported.

  SAS actively ensured that 999 calls were clinically monitored and prioritised, utilising paramedic advisors and NHS 24 clinical team leaders within the emergency medical dispatch centres.

  While patient transport services were reduced in some areas, high priority groups such as renal and cancer patients continued to be transported where this was possible. SAS worked in close partnership with territorial NHS boards throughout the period of disruption.

  The service took delivery of 22 new 4x4 vehicles in December 2010 and January 2011 to further enhance their resilience, they also plan to introduce winter tyres across their fleet before next winter.

Business Rates

Gavin Brown (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis it has carried out of the impact on jobs of its proposed rise to business rates for large retail premises.

John Swinney: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-38603 on 4 February 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Charities and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation provisions under chapter 7 of the Charities and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 will come into force.

Fergus Ewing: The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (Commencement No. 5) Order 2011 was made on 18 January 2011. This order brings into force all the provisions relating to Scottish charitable incorporated organisations (SCIO) under Chapter 7 of the 2005 act. The order can be found at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2011/20/made .

  Sections 50, 52 and 64 of the 2005 act came into force on 21 January 2011 for the purpose of allowing Scottish Ministers to make regulations setting out further provision in relation to SCIOs. Sections 50 and 52 come into force for all other purposes on 1 April 2011. Sections 49, 51, 53 to 55, 62 and 63 also come into force on 1st April 2011. Sections 56 to 61 of the act come into force on 1 January 2012.

  The Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations Regulations 2011, which are subject to negative procedure, were laid before the Parliament on 28 January 2011. The regulations can be found at:

  http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2011/44/made.

  The Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations (Removal from Register and Dissolution) Regulations 2011 (ISBN 978-0-11-101211-16), which are subject to affirmative resolution, were laid in draft before the Parliament on 28 January 2011. The draft regulations can be found at:

  http://www.legislation.gov.uk/sdsi/2011/9780111012116.

Dairy Industry

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much (a) milk and (b) other dairy produce it purchases annually; by whom it is supplied, and what the farms of origin are.

Richard Lochhead: The Scottish Government’s in-house contract was awarded to Sodexo in 2010. Last year Sodexo supplied just under 107,000 litres of liquid milk and 17,176 litres of dairy products, all of which was supplied by a network of 70 assured Scottish farms through the Graham’s dairy in Bridge of Allan.

Dairy Industry

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it holds on the farmers who produce the milk that it purchases and how much they are paid on average per litre.

Richard Lochhead: The contract to supply milk to the Scottish Government was awarded to Sodexo in 2010 who procure milk from Graham’s Dairy, its supplier in Scotland, in accordance with competitive practise. Sodexo’s contractual relationship with their suppliers is commercially confidential.

Dairy Industry

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the cost of production for dairy farmers supplying milk to the public sector and the price that they receive.

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the cost of production for dairy farmers supplying cheese to the public sector and the price that they receive.

Richard Lochhead: The Scottish Government collects milk data on (i) utilisation and (ii) average price in order to meet the requirements of EU Regulation 479/2010. This data shows that for 2010 the average price per litre was 24.36 pence for all types of milk and dairy products supplied to the public and private sectors by the liquid milk and cheese processors. We do no collect data on production costs.

Dairy Industry

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how much milk is purchased annually by (a) the NHS and (b) each local authority and how much each spends on (i) milk and (ii) other dairy products.

Richard Lochhead: The total annual expenditure on dairy produce, including milk, through the health sector is estimated to be £4,220,000.

  The total annual expenditure by local authorities on dairy produce, including milk, through the education and social work sectors is estimated to be £4,377,800.

Dairy Industry

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has produced guidance for public bodies on purchasing milk produced in Scotland and how much of the milk procured for the public sector is labelled with the (a) country of origin and (b) name of the supplying farm.

Richard Lochhead: There is no guidance that has been produced specifically for milk as it is not possible to specify in contracts "milk from Scotland" or similar. New guidance has been produced, Catering for Change - January 2011, which shows how to make full use of the flexibility available to public bodies to legally include sustainability issues in their food procurement activity.

  Milk is sourced through competitive contracts awarded by public bodies. Milk companies will have full traceability of the source of milk supplied. Wisemans is by some margin the largest supplier and their labelling identifies Scottish milk but not the name of the supplying farm.

Dairy Industry

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of milk produced in Scotland is (a) purchased by (i) supermarkets, (ii) caterers and (iii) public sector organisations in Scotland and (b) sold in the (i) United Kingdom and (ii) rest of the European Union.

Richard Lochhead: The Scottish Government does not collate data on the market utilisation and final sale point of milk produced in Scotland.

Diabetes

Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it invests each year in research into type 1 diabetes.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Government has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health and healthcare needs in Scotland. CSO responds primarily to requests for funding research proposals initiated by the research community in Scotland.

  CSO expenditure on diabetes research in 2009-10 was £827,129 of which £44,000 was spent on type 1 diabetes. CSO is currently funding 6 research projects on diabetes at a total cost of £1.1 million. CSO would be pleased to consider further proposals for research into type 1 diabetes which would be subject to the usual peer and committee review.

Emergency Services

Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when the consultation papers on the reform of police and fire and rescue service reform will be published.

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive on what date it will launch its consultation on the reform of (a) policing and (b) fire and rescue services.

Kenny MacAskill: The consultation papers, A consultation on the future of policing in Scotland and A consultation on the future of the fire and rescue service in Scotland , will be published on 10 February 2011. Copies of the consultations papers will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 52389 and 52390).

General Practitioners

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many generalist doctors have been trained in each year since 1999.

Nicola Sturgeon: Information on the number of general practitioners that have gained Completed Certificate of Training is only available from the year 2000, as detailed in the following table:

  

Year
Total


2000
221


2001
235


2002
228


2003
232


2004
245


2005
222


2006
241


2007
268


2008
248


2009
258


2010
247



  Source: NHS Education for Scotland.

  Based on current projected figures, 331 general practitioners will complete their training in 2011.

Health

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what importance it attaches to the recommendations in The Mackie Report.

Nicola Sturgeon: Following my participation in the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign’s annual conference in October 2010, I made a very strong statement in support of the recommendations in the Mackie Report.

  These are endorsed by the recommendations in the Scottish Muscle Network’s strategic review of services for people with neuro-muscular disorders. The Minister for Public Health and Sport had a productive meeting, earlier this week, with representatives of the network, to discuss implementation of both pieces of work.

Ministerial Meetings

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing last met officials from NHS Forth Valley and what issues were discussed.

Nicola Sturgeon: Ministers and government officials meet representatives of all NHS boards, including those from NHS Forth Valley, on a regular basis. Meetings cover a wide range of matters of current interest affecting health services in the area.

  I met the Chair of NHS Forth Valley on 31 January 2011 at the last regular meeting of NHS board chairs.

NHS Boards

Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress NHS Ayrshire and Arran has made in delivering improved patient care in the last year.

Nicola Sturgeon: NHS Ayrshire and Arran has made significant progress in delivering improved patient care in the last year, in line with national policies, guidelines and frameworks; as evidenced at the NHS board’s annual review held in Irvine in September 2010.

NHS Staff

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff in NHS National Services Scotland are absent on sick leave due to work-related stress and how many have been absent for this reason in each year since 2007-08.

Nicola Sturgeon: NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) do not collate and categorise sickness absence figures into those relating to purely "work-related" stress. NSS do however collate sickness absence figures for employees absent for the following reasons - anxiety, stress, depression, other psychological illness. The figures provided below represent the number of NSS employees absent from work due to those reasons:

  

2007-08
67


2008-09
143


2009-10
189


2010-11
(to date) 109



  NHS NSS have indicated that the increase in recorded cases is due to improved reason for absence recording rather than an upward trend in actual cases. It is also important to note that the 2007-08 figure relates to stress only.

National Health Service

Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to improve complaints handling in the NHS.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Patient Rights (Scotland) Bill, currently being scrutinised by the Parliament, introduces a legal right to complain. It will give every NHS patient in Scotland the right to give feedback or comments, or raise concerns or complaints about the healthcare they have received.

  We will review the complaints handling process as we develop the directions, regulations and guidance associated with the bill to identify areas for improvement and strengthen support available to patients.

Oil and Gas Industry

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on how an independent Scotland would use collateral in the remaining North Sea oil and gas reserves to support its banks.

John Swinney: Scotland’s remaining North Sea oil and gas reserves are estimated to have a potential wholesale value of £1 trillion and act as a significant source of tax revenue for the UK Exchequer. In the next six years alone, the North Sea is forecast to generate £60.5 billion in tax revenue for the UK Exchequer. This compares to the expected £2 billion net cost of all the UK Government’s financial sector interventions forecast in the June 2010 Emergency Budget.

  With responsibility for this vast resource, and the opportunity to determine the best approach to financial regulation in Scotland, the Scottish Government would be able to ensure financial stability in the banking system.

Roads

Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to improve the A92 around Glenrothes.

Keith Brown: As the then Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change indicated in his answer to the member’s question on 23 September 2010, in the last three years, we have invested over £1.8 million on maintenance and safety improvements on the A92 trunk road between Glenrothes and the Tay Road Bridge. This year we plan to spend over £1 million on this section of the A92.

Scottish Enterprise

Mr Frank McAveety (Glasgow Shettleston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met representatives of Scottish Enterprise and what issues were discussed.

Jim Mather: Ministers and officials meet representatives of Scottish Enterprise on a regular basis in the ministerial office in Atlantic Quay. The most recent meeting with ministers was on 1 February 2011 when the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth met representatives of Scottish Enterprise at a meeting of the BioQuarter Partners’ Forum.

Tourism

Elizabeth Smith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the availability of tourist information following the closure of tourist information offices across Perthshire and Kinross-shire.

Jim Mather: Since the closure of Kinross Visitor Information Centre in 2008, the last such closure in the region, VisitScotland, and Perth and Kinross Council, have continued to review the provision of visitor information services across the region. Both are in agreement that the current provision meets demand within the resources available.

  Current provision of visitor information services in the area is provided through VisitScotland information centres, information points and partnerships. Together these provide a variety of local knowledge and regional publications; as well as various eMedia solutions such as the VisitPerthshire website and the new national iPhone app.